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Paved verandahs: don't forget their maintenance needs

With our verandah paved in a sandstone paver, we've quickly found that it needs to be frequently cleaned. Two small children, a pet chicken and sandy soil are adding to its rapid griminess.

If we only had a nice lush green lawn, the problem might not be so bad.

The verandah has been a bit of a trial, with some "confusion" over its colour, a higher than expected cost to prepare and lay it, and now how dirty it quickly becomes.

But when clean it looks brilliant.

I went looking a high pressure water cleaners at Bunnings several weeks ago. I was shocked to see how expensive they were - up to about $500 if I recall correctly. I decided not to get one.

But the verandah still wasn't clean, and wet chicken poo is not easy to clean off. A project that is rapidly getting closer is reconstruction of the fence around the chicken run so that it stays inside its area under the lemon tree. We are also planning to get two more chickens. But until then...

Fortunately, during the week Aldi advertised a $79 high pressure water cleaner from its Gardenline range. Although only 1600W, 5.5 litres per minute and 70 bar of cleaning pressure, the price was right.

And it cleans well.

Update: It cleans so well that it takes render off the wall too....Another patch for when the renderers come back in about a months time.

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